


And now this lonely lullaby

by MattLightwood (TanyaHarries)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Cuteness overload, No Romance, Other, Sibling Bonding, They are all kids, an important moment for jace and alec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8032192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanyaHarries/pseuds/MattLightwood
Summary: A game changer night for the Lightwoods.





	And now this lonely lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> So! This was inspired by Todd Slavkin (the showrunner for Shadowhunters) and his tweets about flashbacks for the Lightwood siblings. And also on a conversation I had with my friend Liv ([@hoteldumorts](http://hoteldumorts.tumblr.com)) about our favorite kids <3
> 
> Everybody is 8 years younger here! So please keep that in mind. I didn't read this before posting it, so beware of typos and stuff like that. Anyways, enjoy!

Alec is a twelve years old kid, the oldest of the Lightwood family. He’s a kid, but he knows his responsibilities and duties towards his family.

He was sitting on his bed against the wooden headboard, reading one of the books his mother gave to him to study in the morning. He wasn’t supposed to start reading until the next day, but he wanted to start earlier so he could re read it before his mother decided to give him a little quiz about the subject.

Besides, it was an interesting book. It talked about the history of the Shadowhunters, from Jonathan Shadowhunter and the Angel Raziel to the Uprising. Centuries of history and lives resting quietly in his hands.

Alec loved books. It was probably one of the only things he was good at: reading. Yes, Isabelle was really smart (probably as much or more than him), but she wasn’t exactly into reading unless it was something she was interested in. Alec loved every book for whatever they had to offer, even if it was science, fiction, history or anything. Books were Alec’s best friends when he was alone in his room.

He was just arriving to the part where Jonathan asks the Angel to help them, when his door opened.

In the threshold was no one other than Jace. In technical terms, Jace was his eleven year old little brother. Adopted, but brother nonetheless. Alec couldn’t help but smile at his sight. There was something about Jace that always made Alec terribly happy; which was kind of a horrible thing to say, considering he was mostly sad and cold, but Alec felt warm around him and an indescribable wish to protect him.

“Jace?” Alec beckoned giving his little brother a full smile and leaving his book aside. It was really weird of Jace to come to Alec’s room on his own, but Alec was happy either way.

Jace entered the room in silence and closed the door behind him. Alec observed him carefully as the blonde boy walked to his bed and stopped right there. Jace searched for Alec’s eyes and pointed the bed with one finger. Alec nodded quickly and moved to make him room, and his brother plopped beside him.

“Jace?” Alec tried again. While Jace wasn’t exactly a talkative kid, it was still weird of him to be in this kind of mood. “Are you okay, Jace? Do you need mom?”

“No,” Jace simply said, placing his head on Alec’s shoulder and curling up around him. “I just don’t want to be alone tonight. I won’t bother you. Keep reading.”

“But Jace-”

“Alec,” Jace stopped him without moving from his position. “I’m okay. Keep reading.”

Alec bit his lip. He wanted to know what was going on because Jace was obviously not okay; he couldn’t go ask his mom about it because he was trapped under Jace’s body, but he could still do something else.

He faked reading while he concentrated. Why could Jace be in a bad mood tonight? Why didn’t he want to be alone? Alec swiftly looked at the calendar on his nightstand, where everything finally started to make sense.

Tomorrow was going to be one year since Jace’s father, Michael Wayland, was killed by Circle members and therefore, he was left an orphan. The Clave was quick to assign him to Alec’s parents merely because Michael used to be Robert’s (Alec’s dad) parabatai and best friend.

Alec’s heart clenched in pain for his brother. It was just not fair. And Alec knew he couldn’t have done anything to change things, but his selfish little kid mind was kind of happy to have Jace around. Or maybe not so selfish, considering that he was sure Michael wasn’t exactly a lovely parent.

Alec decided that Jace was here because he trusted Alec, because he knew he could count on Alec.

“Do you want me to read out loud?” Alec questioned embracing Jace with one arm.

“You don’t mind?”

“Of course I don’t mind, silly.”

That brought a smile on Jace’s face. The youngest nodded twice and Alec started reading for him and for Jace. He wasn’t sure the blonde one was really paying attention, but that wasn’t the point of Alec reading out loud. Jace needed distraction, and sometimes just listening without concentrating was nice to calm nerves.

They almost reached the end of the chapter when the door opened again.

This time it was their little sister Isabelle, two pig tails adorning her hair, carrying baby Max. Isabelle was ten and Max one. Why did she had their little brother in her arms at this time of the night was anyone’s guess.

“Here you are, Jace! I was looking for you!” Izzy walked in and closed with her heel. Different from Jace, she just simply placed herself at Alec’s other side without asking for permission first. Max was sitting on her lap, a little smile on his face. He looked quite sleepy. “What are we doing?”

“I was reading out loud. About Jonathan Shadowhunter,” Alec said.

“BO-RING!” Izzy answered freeing one of her hands from her hold on Max to steal his book and drop it on the ground. “Sing us a lullaby.”

“Isabelle, that was rude,” Alec scolded. Izzy knew that she was being rude, but she didn’t care, as always. She was pouting now. “Izzy, stop pouting. You know what mom thinks about that.”

“ _You know what mom thinks about that_ , BO-RING!” Isabelle imitated her brother and then blew a raspberry at him. Alec rolled his eyes.

“You know how to sing?” Jace asked curling even more against him.

That question made Alec blush.

“Well, I don’t _know_ how to sing. I just sing for Izzy and Max sometimes,” he explained. Jace’s interest was clear in his different-colored eyes. Alec loved his eyes a little bit too much, not that anyone knew about it.

“Can you sing for us?” Jace requested and Isabelle nodded in agreement. This was an attack at Alec’s heart and he wasn’t prepared to defend himself. “Please? I want to hear you.”

Alec looked at his siblings one by one, analyzing their begging expressions before sighing. They weren’t going to leave him alone otherwise. And also, Izzy already made sure to spoil his reading night.

“Fine,” Alec allowed, and his siblings smiled at this.

Alec started singing one of the many lullabies he knew, but one he never sang to anyone but himself. He wasn’t going to tell his little siblings why this lullaby was his little secret; neither was he going to talk to them about it. His voice was soft and sweet, and maybe sometimes he was off-key, but none of his siblings cared. Alec’s voice was soothing and beautiful in his own way.

When Alec finished _The Lonely Lullaby_ , Izzy, Jace and Max were sleeping soundly, all curled up around him.

Now it wasn’t so lonely.

 

Jace came running his way the next day, just after breakfast. He was smiling from ear to ear, even though this wasn’t exactly a happy day for him.

“Alec!” Jace called, and Alec stopped and smiled. Alec was finally growing taller than Jace, but he wasn’t going to point that out at the moment. Jace took both of Alec’s hand, surprising him by the sudden of it all. There was some intensity in his brother’s eyes when he took a deep breath and said, “Do you want to be my _parabatai_?”

**Author's Note:**

> Sadly the Lonely Lullaby doesn't exist, although the title was inspired by Owl City's song "Lonely Lullaby". I might write the Lonely Lullaby some day, but I'm not feeling really poetic today lmao.
> 
> Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it :)  
> (Follow me on my [tumblr](http://mattlightwood.tumblr.com)! If you ever want to talk about this or whatever, send me an ask!)


End file.
